One thing that stuck out from our wedding day was our ceremony. Our officiant (who happens to be one of our best friends!) did a unique ceremony in which she did a "he said" "she said" version of how we met, our story, and where we were looking to be in the future. It was fun, beautiful, and created a moment to both honor our past and look forward to our future. I had so many people tell me afterwards that it was one of their favorite ceremonies they had been to!

Life has been great since that beautiful October day at The Pickering Barn. We celebrated 4 years of marriage on October 6th. We welcomed our first baby - a sweet boy named Brody in March, so we are now officially a family of three! I work as a Family Support Liaison in the Tacoma School District and Derek is the Chef/Owner of the restaurant The Table on Tacoma's 6th Avenue. The restaurant just celebrated 1 year of being open in July and we are so grateful for the community we've built there. We are living out our dreams one day at a time and look forward to what the future holds!

Favorite part of the wedding planning process - well, OF COURSE the cake tasting; but other than that, I loved picking out my dress. I flipped through The Knot magazine and circled any dress I loved. I then looked up the designers I circled and cross-referenced what boutiques in the area sold the designers I was interested in. I ended up getting my dress from a boutique in Burien called Pearls and Lace. The experience was everything I could've hoped for. Friendly sales associates, no pressure to buy, and the purchase of my Maggie Sottero dress which I LOVED!

The best piece of advice I give to my friends getting married is to get a wedding planner. Seriously. I am in no way organized enough to take care of all those details and having someone to help me through the process was a life-saver and took so much stress off me. It allowed me to actually enjoy my wedding day knowing everything was taken care of! Hands down, if it's in the budget - get a wedding planner!